Using any group of humans—immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, anybody—as a wedge issue or to “motivate your base” is despicable. It’s also straight out of the authoritarian playbook. It frightens me that such people hold positions of power.

I wanted to write that such behavior is un-American. But the reality is that denigrating, abusing, and using others for political and financial gain has played itself out in American history from the founding of the republic 250 years ago.